Occupational Health and Safety Practices on Employee Productivity at SIBCA LLC”, hereby solemnly declare that this thesis is my own original research work conducted and prepared by me under the supervision of Dr. Keywords: Occupational Health and Safety, Occupational Health and Safety Practices, Productivity, Employee Productivity, Work Environment, Occupational Safety, Occupational Health, O'Donnell Model, SIBCA LLC, United Arab Emirates.
Introduction
- Overview
- Statement of the Problem and Research Motivation
- Research Problem and Associated Questions
- Research Aim
- Research Questions
- Research Objectives
- Research Hypotheses
- Difference of Means Hypotheses
- Relationship Hypotheses
- Deliverables
- Application and Significance
- Research Context
- Organization of Interest
Do workers experience a reduced risk of exposure to workplace hazards due to the intervention of increased and strategic occupational health and safety practices? Articles 91–101 of the UAE Labor Code (2001) provide provisions for worker safety and health care.
Literature Review
Overview
The Occupational Health and Safety Concept
Health and safety risks and hazards are critical to the organization and its performance; therefore, they should be managed and controlled at the highest level (Alli, 2008). To meet the OHS objectives set by government agencies, all parties involved in the workplace, from union officials to workers, must be committed to the OHS programs (Alli, 2008).
Theoretical Frameworks for Occupational Health and Safety
- O’Donnell’s Model for Health and Productivity
- The Workplace Health Model
The third phase of the model focuses on implementing interventions designed to improve occupational health and safety levels, including. These actions implement the plan developed in the second phase of the model in the organization.
Occupational Health and Safety and Company Productivity
- Methods to Measure Employee Productivity
In New Zealand, a similar study examines the impact of OHS on increasing employee productivity (Lamm et al., 2007). A study conducted in the UK links productivity with presenteeism (being in poor health) and absenteeism (Hafner et al., 2015).
Occupational Health and Safety for Boosting Productivity
- Measuring Employee Health and Safety Perceptions
- Evaluation of Impact of Health and Safety on Productivity
- Evaluating Economic Benefits for Firms
This workload as perceived by employees is an important part of measuring safety (Oah et al., 2018). Labor and equipment costs that would be incurred as a result of the VZT program.
Health and Safety Interventions
- Sickness-Related Absence and Health and Safety
- Health and Safety Policies and Procedures in the UAE
A final area of intervention concerns the use of devices designed to improve health and safety (Andersen et al., 2019). It can also include the use of devices to reduce risk and improve health and safety (Andersen et al., 2019). Thus, the development of health and safety practices focuses on improving the health of employees in and outside the workplace in order to reduce or prevent absenteeism due to illness (Loeppke et al., 2015).
Similarly, 69% of construction companies do not have an understanding of the importance of health and safety in the workplace (Access Group, 2020).
Hypothesis Development
The same kind of measure should be carried out in the field of awareness, which is the next subscale in workplace health and safety research (Institute of Work and Health, 2016). Participation is the final subscale of the workplace health and safety survey (Institute of Work and Health, 2016). Accordingly, the final hypothesis addresses the model and whether the sub-elements of interest in the workplace health and safety study (Institute of Work and Health, 2016) changed significantly before and after the study.
It also correlates with one of the subsections or measures of the Workplace Health and Safety Survey (Institute for Work and Health, 2016), which is designed to collect data on the effectiveness of OH&S in the workplace.
Methodology
- Overview
- Research Epistemology
- Research Design
- Research Procedures
- Occupational Health and Safety Survey
- Productivity Data
- Interventions
- Ethical Considerations
- Limitations
- Conclusion
A potential risk is if employees who completed the pre-intervention survey leave the company and are not available to complete another survey, or if they withdraw from the study. Further, to measure changes 13 months later, on July 5, 2022, a post-intervention survey was distributed to pre-intervention survey respondents via the same emailing process as in the previous phase (see Appendix C). SIBCA LLC has doubled the number of HSE officers since the establishment of the QHSE department and the first survey.
As a result, the study may not be objective as it is based on the researcher's interpretation of the data.
Data Analysis
Overview
Sample Characteristics
Although this result may seem skewed, it mainly reflects the nature of the business in the UAE. This series of departments demonstrates the variety of roles in the company, representing the types of roles in each department and their significance within the company. Accordingly, the roles within the company represented in the survey sample are significant and diverse.
It is clear that the company is active and growing, and SIBCA LLC members continue to move up the ranks, which is not an inconsistency or anomaly in the data.
Data Screening
The productivity data set was screened to verify that all employees who participated in the pre- and post-intervention surveys were present in the productivity data set, and the productivity data were linked to survey responses using participant codes .
Missing Data
Aberrant Values
Outliers
At a significance level of p < 0.001, the Mahalanobis distance was compared with the chi-square distribution with degrees of freedom equal to the number of independent variables. Outliers were removed before reassessing normality using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test to determine whether their removal would significantly affect the data set; we also examined the skewness and kurtosis values. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test showed that removing outliers did not affect the normality of the data (p < 0.05), and excluding outliers did not significantly improve the normality of the data.
Normality
Thus, the data may not have a normal distribution, and the significance of skewness should be further tested using normality tests. For pre-intervention productive hours, this level of kurtosis is close or stable, but for all other variables, it is significantly skewed towards the tail (see Table 6). SPSS was used to perform the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests to determine whether the data had a normal distribution.
In this case, the alpha is set at .05, indicating that there is a 5% chance that the conclusion will be reached if the data does not follow a normal distribution (see Table 7).
Multicollinearity
Common Method Bias
Specifically, the marker variable controls for the common method variance, including "a measure of the presumed source of the method variance as a covariate in the statistical analysis" (Podsakoff et al., 2003, p. 889). For the Harman one-factor test, the total variance extracted by a single factor cannot exceed 50%; otherwise, common method bias is assumed to be present in the data.
Reliability Analysis
In my workplace, incidents and accidents are rapidly investigated to improve workplace health and safety. In my workplace, I am clear about my rights and responsibilities regarding health and safety in the workplace. At my workplace, I feel free to raise concerns or make suggestions about workplace health and safety.
In my workplace, health and safety in the workplace is considered to be at least as important as production and quality.
Descriptive Statistics and Correlations
- Descriptive Statistics
- Pearson’s Correlation
In my workplace, the employer's rights and responsibilities regarding health and safety at work are clear to me. In my workplace, I have the knowledge to help respond to any health and safety issues. I can raise concerns or make suggestions about health and safety at work in my workplace.
Accordingly, there were statistically significant differences in scores before and after the intervention in several domains.
Hypothesis Testing
Paired-Samples t-Test
A paired-sample t-test shows a significance level of > 0.001 for all pairs, indicating that they changed to a statistically significant degree between pre- and post-testing (see Tables 17-19). Cohen's d was used to compare the two groups, especially before and after tests in several domains, which are divided according to the previous categories.
Linear Regression
Predictors: (Constant), Education, Age Category, Marital Status, Wage Category, Position, Class Category, Section Sum Post Intervention Awareness Survey, Section Sum Post Intervention Hazard Survey, Section Sum Post Intervention Participation Survey, Sum Post Intervention Policy Survey Section Sum. Four additional hypotheses were tested to determine whether employee productivity could be directly related to each of the areas of employee perception. The effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable was compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA) (post-intervention, productivity hours).
The statistical significance of the sample demographics and the statistical significance of the H7 through H10 findings were tested using linear regression and related coefficients.
Conclusion
Predictors in the model: (constant), education, age group, marital status, salary category, job role, class category. The hypotheses were then tested according to the research model to evaluate the relationship between changes in occupational safety and health practices and employee productivity. H7: There is a negative relationship between workplace hazard exposure and employee productivity following safety and security interventions.
The next chapter describes the significance and theoretical implications of the findings, limitations of the study, and direction for future research.
Discussion and Conclusion
Overview
Discussion of Results
The result is consistent with the findings on the previous hypothesis, as theoretically, an increase in the application of the intervention and the awareness of employees about the change in OHS practices should promote increased participation. Existing literature has proven that employees must be actively engaged in the change process for interventions to be effective (Hafner et al., 2015). That is, they determined how each of the sub-elements in the employee survey related to each other and the resulting increase in employee productivity.
The result is significant in the context of the UAE because work-related injuries are a serious cause of concern in the UAE (Loney et al., 2012; Alao et al., 2020).
Theoretical Implications
Second, from a theoretical perspective, the findings suggest that O'Donnell's conceptual model for health and productivity and the workplace health model as applied to the current intervention are suitable for explaining or supporting understanding of how to monitor occupational safety and improve organizational health . O'Donnell's (2000) theory states that managers can create profits and productivity through an increased focus on occupational safety and health in the workplace. A study confirming O'Donnell's theory shows that productivity and occupational health are symbiotically linked.
However, statistically, the confirmation of H7 to H9 supports O'Donnell's model and the idea that when awareness and practices increase, the OHS culture in the company changes, creating an environment where productivity can be improved.
Practical Implications
This is reinforced by the present study, which showed an increase in productivity associated with the implementation of the intervention in OH&S. The first finding in the context of the UAE on OHS is that there is a need for more attention to be given to OHS. Together, the findings confirm the practical application of the CDC (2018) model for workplace health.
Nevertheless, the practical application of the CDC model (2018) for implementing changes in occupational health and safety is supported.
Limitations and Future Research
Such future research would have the advantage of being more generalizable to other businesses in the UAE and provide meaningful support for the development of best practices. The hypothesis of increased productivity was exclusively supported by an increase in the number of hours worked. Regarding the change in health-related productivity, the subcomponents included absenteeism and at-work productivity, number of days and hours worked, difficulty of work, cost of time away from work and loss of productivity in hours (Beaton et al., 2009).
As a result, one of the primary recommendations for future research is that instead of simply using hours worked, there needs to be a more standardized and definitive way of measuring productivity when it is linked to health and safety.
Conclusions
Employee motivations in maintaining occupational health and safety (OHS) compliance: survey of nine construction companies in Poland. Challenges and opportunities for raising health and safety awareness among a multinational workforce in the United Arab Emirates. Retrieved from https://www.britsafe.org/media/1569/the-business-benefits-health-and-safety-literature-review.pdf.
Computer-based cost-benefit analysis model for the economic evaluation of occupational health and safety interventions in the workplace.
